The vicuña (''Lama vicugna'') or vicuna (both , very rarely spelled ''vicugna'',
its former genus name) is one of the two wild
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
n
camelid
Camelids are members of the biological family (biology), family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant taxon, extant members of this group are: dromedary, dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bac ...
s, which live in the high
alpine areas of the
Andes
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...
; the other camelid is the
guanaco
The guanaco ( ; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids; the other species is the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations.
Etymology
The gua ...
, which lives at lower elevations. Vicuñas are relatives of the
llama
The llama (; or ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the pre-Columbian era.
Llamas are social animals and live with ...
, and are now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated
alpaca
The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. Traditionally, alpacas were kept in herds that grazed on the level heights of the Andes of Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Ecuador, and Northern Chile. More recentl ...
s, which are raised for their coats. Vicuñas produce small amounts of extremely fine
wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...
, which is very expensive because the animal can be
shorn only every three years and has to be caught from the wild. When knitted together, the product of the vicuña's wool is very soft and warm. The
Inca
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...
valued vicuñas highly for their wool, and it was against the law for anyone but royalty to wear vicuña garments; today, the vicuña is the
national animal of
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
and appears on the
Peruvian coat of arms.
Both under the rule of the Inca and today, vicuñas have been protected by law, but they were heavily hunted in the intervening period. When they were declared
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
in 1974, only about 6,000 animals were left. Today, the vicuña population has recovered to about 350,000,
and although conservation organizations have reduced its level of threat classification, they still call for active conservation programs to protect populations from poaching,
habitat loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...
, and other threats.
Previously, the vicuña was not considered domesticated, and the llama and the alpaca were regarded as descendants of the closely related
guanaco
The guanaco ( ; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids; the other species is the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations.
Etymology
The gua ...
. However,
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
research published in 2001 has demonstrated that the alpaca may have vicuña parentage.
Today, the vicuña is mainly wild, but the local people still perform special rituals with these creatures, including a fertility rite.
Description
The vicuña is considered more delicate and gracile than the
guanaco
The guanaco ( ; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids; the other species is the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations.
Etymology
The gua ...
and smaller. A key distinguishing element of
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
*Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
*Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...
is the better-developed incisor roots for the guanaco. The vicuña's long, woolly coat is tawny brown on the back, whereas the hair on the throat and chest is white and quite long. Its head is slightly shorter than guanaco's, and the ears are slightly longer. The length of the head and body ranges from 1.45 to 1.60 m (about 5 ft); shoulder height is from 75 to 85 cm (around 3 ft); its weight is from 35 to 65 kg (under 150 lb). It falls prey to the
cougar
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...
and
culpeo.
Taxonomy and evolution
There are two subspecies of vicuña:
* ''Lama vicugna vicugna''
* ''Lama vicugna mensalis''
While vicuñas are restricted to the more extreme elevations of the Andes in modern times, they may have also been present in the lowland regions of
Patagonia
Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...
as much as 3500 km south of their current range during the
Late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...
and
Early Holocene. Fossils of these lowland camelids have been assigned to a species known as ''Lama gracilis'', but genetic and morphological analysis between them and modern vicuña indicate the two may be the same.
Distribution and habitat
Vicuñas are native to South America's central
Andes
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...
. They are found in
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
, northwestern
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
,
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
, and northern
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
. A smaller, introduced population lives in central
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
.
Vicuñas live at altitudes of .
They feed in the daytime on the grassy plains of the Andes Mountains but spend the nights on the slopes. In these areas, only nutrient-poor, tough, bunch grasses and ''
Festuca
''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on ...
'' grow. The sun's rays can penetrate the thin
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
, producing relatively warm temperatures during the day; however, the temperatures drop to freezing at night. The vicuña's thick but soft coat is a unique adaptation that traps layers of warm air close to its body to tolerate freezing temperatures.
Chief predators include
pumas,
culpeos and
domestic dogs .
Behavior
The behavior of vicuñas is similar to that of the guanacos. They are timid animals and are easily aroused by intruders due, among other things, to their extraordinary hearing. Like the guanacos, they frequently lick
calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcare ...
stones and rocks, which, together with salt water, is its source of salt. Vicuñas are clean animals and always deposit their excrement in the same place. Their diets consist mainly of low grasses which grow in clumps on the ground.
Vicuñas live in family-based groups of a male, 5 to 15 females, and their young. Each group has its territory of about , which can fluctuate depending on food availability.
Mating
In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually repr ...
usually occurs in March–April. After a
gestation
Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregn ...
about 11 months, the female gives birth to a single fawn, which is nursed for about ten months. The fawn becomes independent at about 12 to 18 months old. Young males form bachelor groups, and the young females search for a sorority to join. This deters intraspecific competition and inbreeding.
Conservation
Until 1964, hunting of the vicuña was unrestricted, which reduced its numbers to only 6,000 in the 1960s. As a result, the species was declared endangered in 1974, and its status prohibited the trade of vicuña wool. In Peru, during 1964–1966, the Servicio Forestal y de Caza in cooperation with the US Peace Corps, Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and the
National Agrarian University of
La Molina established a nature conservatory for the vicuña called the
Pampa Galeras – Barbara D'Achille in
Lucanas Province,
Ayacucho. During that time, a game warden academy was held in Nazca, where eight men from Peru and six from Bolivia were trained to protect the vicuña from poaching.
To cooperate on the conservation of the vicuña, the governments of Bolivia and Peru signed the Convention for the Conservation of the Vicuña on 16 August 1969 in
La Paz
La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...
, explicitly leaving the treaty open to accession by Argentina and Chile.
[ Convenio para la Conservación de la Vicuña (Wikisource). Source: Registro Oficial N° 144 de 4 de agosto de 1976 (Official Gazette of the Government of Ecuador no. #144, 4 August 1976).] Ecuador acceded on 11 February 1976.
The Convention prohibited their international trade and domestic exploitation, and ordered the parties to create reserves and breeding centres.
A follow-up treaty, the Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña, was signed between Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru on 20 December 1979 in
Lima
Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...
.
It explicitly allowed only Argentina to sign it if it also signed the 1969 La Paz Convention (Article 12;
Argentina joined in 1981
), and did not allow other countries to accede to the convention 'due to its specific character' (Article 13).
The 1979 Convention did allow the use of the vicuña under strict circumstances if the animal population had recovered sufficiently.
In combination with
CITES
CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...
(effective in 1975), as well as USA and EU trade legislation, the Conventions were highly successful, as the vicuña population substantially grew as a result.
The estimated population in Peru was 66,559 in 1994, 103,161 in 1997, 118,678 in 2000, and 208,899 in 2012. Currently, the community of Lucanas conducts a ''chaccu'' (herding, capturing, and shearing) on the reserve each year to harvest the wool, organized by the National Council for South American Camelids (CONACS).
In Bolivia, the
Ulla Ulla National Reserve (now the
Apolobamba Integrated Management Natural Area) was designatured as a UNESCO biosphere in 1977, partly as a sanctuary for the species.
Their numbers grew to 125,000 in Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Since this was a ready "cash crop" for community members, the countries relaxed regulations on vicuña wool in 1993, enabling its trade once again. The wool is sold on the world market for over $300 per kg. In 2002, the
US Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified most populations as threatened, but still lists Ecuador's population as endangered. While the population levels have recovered to a healthy level, poaching remains a constant threat, as do habitat loss and other threats. Consequently, the
IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...
still supports active conservation programs to protect vicuñas, though they lowered their status to least concern in 2018.
[
In 2015, French luxury group ]LVMH
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French multinational holding company and conglomerate that specializes in luxury goods and has its headquarters in Paris, France. The company was formed in 1987 through the ...
said that "Loro Piana
Loro Piana S.p.A. is an Italian luxury fashion brand specialized in textile manufacturing and ready-to-wear clothing headquartered in Milan, Italy. Since its start as a merchant of cashmere, vicuña, linen and merino fabrics, Loro Piana expa ...
saved the species." The Italian company has been criticized for underpaying local communities collecting the wool. In 2022, the Argentine government's National Council for Scientific and Technical Investigation estimated that "Andean communities receive around 3% of the value generated by the vicuña fiber chain."
Vicuña wool
Its wool is famous for its warmth and is used for apparel, such as socks, sweaters, accessories, shawls, coats, suits, and home furnishings, such as blankets and throws. Its properties come from the tiny scales on the hollow, air-filled fibres, which causes them to interlock and trap insulating air. Vicuñas have some of the finest fibers in the world, at a diameter of 12 μm. The fiber of cashmere goats is 14 to 19 μm, while angora rabbit is 8 to 12 μm, and that of shahtoosh from the Tibetan antelope, or chiru, is from 9 to 12 μm.
Gallery
File:Escudo nacional del Perú.svg, Vicuña in the coat of arms of Peru
The coat of arms of Peru is the national symbolic emblem of Peru. Four variants are used: the coat of arms ''per se'', the National Coat of Arms (or the National Shield), the Great Seal of the State, and the Naval Coat of Arms.
Official descrip ...
File:Alpaca, Llama, Vicuna (illustration from New Student's Reference Work, 1914).jpg, Comparison of alpaca, llama, and vicuña (1914)
File:Vicuña.jpg, A vicuña on rocky terrain (2008)
File:Vicuñas camino a Geysers El Tatio.jpg, Vicuñas near El Tatio geysers, San Pedro de Atacama
San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean town and commune in El Loa Province, Antofagasta Region. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 106 km (60 mi) southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcan ...
, Antofagasta Region
The Antofagasta Region (, ) is one of Chile's Administrative divisions of Chile, sixteen first-order administrative divisions. Being the second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta Province, Antofagasta, El ...
, Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
(2011)
File:Female Vicuña running.jpg, Vicuña in Jujuy Province
Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.
Geography
There are three main areas in Jujuy ...
in the Argentine Altiplano (2011)
File:Vicugna-ESO.jpg, Vicuña fawn in the Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...
(2014)
File:Vicugna vicugna Salar de Chalviri.jpg, Vicunas in Salar de Chalviri, Bolivia
References
Explanatory notes
External links
*
*
*
Convention for the Conservation of the Vicuña (La Paz 1969, including the 1976 Ecuadorian accession)
– Spanish Wikisource
Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña (Lima 1979)
– Spanish Wikisource
Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña (Lima 1979)
– Original scan a
Conveniovicuna.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicuna
Camelids
Mammals of the Andes
Mammals of Argentina
Mammals of Bolivia
Mammals of Chile
Mammals of Peru
Wool animals
Mammals described in 1782
Taxa named by Juan Ignacio Molina
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN
National symbols of Peru